Daniel de Sailles, a supermellow dude with a bald dome and a scruffy ginger goatee who co-owns Top Shelf Extracts, a Colorado firm specializing in marijuana concentrates, says he first tried Budder in 2008. A customer gave him a small amount to sample while he was working for a dispensary in his hometown of Los Angeles. "I had never seen anything like it," he says. "It was golden and looked like wax." He loved it instantly. "I was impressed," de Sailles says, "not just with its potency, but also by how clean and tasty it was."

"I came out to Colorado, started making hash oil, and it just really took off."

De Sailles soon began searching for other hash oil makers. He wanted to sell it at two dispensaries he managed. "They ended up teaching me how to make it myself," he says. A year later, he moved to Denver and began working as a consultant for a dispensary called Broadway Wellness. That place sold an average of $120,000 worth of wax a week, he says. "I came out to Colorado, started making hash oil for them, and it just really took off," he says. "Back then it was crazy. The wholesale price for a gram of Budder was $30 to $40."

One of the first Coloradans to sample de Sailles' wax was Ry Prichard, a Denver-based cannabis reviewer. "Dan came out here and brought the extract culture," Prichard says. "It took a while to get a foothold." He began seeing more people doing BHO in 2012 during the second High Times Medical Cannabis Cup in Colorado. "To me, concentrates are the future of cannabis," he says. "When I consume a clean concentrate, there is no plant matter, no carcinogens, and no smell."

Jacob Katel

Butane is injected into an aluminum tube packed with marijuana.

Jacob Katel

Mario waits for the butane to evaporate from the mixture.

Although Colorado voters approved medical marijuana in 2000, the legislature didn't legalize hash oil production until last year. That was around the time marijuana advocates in the state were pushing a ballot measure to legalize pot for recreational use. It passed by an overwhelming majority last November, allowing Colorado to join Washington as states where pot is completely legal.

Hash oil has quickly taken over Colorado's serious weed culture, Prichard asserts. "Just today I saw five articles on Facebook proclaiming, 'Is this the new crack?'"

The state has 772 dispensaries and places that manufacture edibles and oil, according to the Department of Revenue. Last year, Colorado's marijuana industry generated $219 million, about $6 million of which was paid in tax. Approximately one-third of the revenue comes from the sale of marijuana concentrates.

"You are starting to see more hash oil manufacturers pop up since they can now make it in a reasonably safe manner," Prichard explains. "The process has become much more industrialized, and the financial windfall is great for those who know the keys to extraction."

High Times' Black points out no one submitted hash oil samples for a hash competition during the magazine's inaugural Medical Cannabis Cup in Colorado five years ago. "Now we got almost 40 submissions," he says. "For our December issue, I'm doing a big feature about a behind-the-scenes tour of Denver's two biggest BHO makers."

In July, de Sailles helped organize the state's first festival celebrating dabs. "It was called the 710 Festival," he says. "When you turn '710' upside down, it spells 'oil.' We had 600 people come out and had to turn others away because we were at capacity."

Rappers, pop culture's authoritative voices on all things ganja, have embraced wax. During an April 23 appearance on Sirius XM radio station Shade 45, Wiz Khalifa briefed listeners on BHO. "It has been around for a minute," he explained. "People are now just getting their hands on it because they know how to make it right. It is just really more potent as far as the THC. It's no leaves, none of that shit."

In early August, B-Real of Cypress Hill posted a short video on YouTube showing a step-by-step process of doing dabs with an oil rig, titled "How to Dab With Dr. Greenthumb." The same month, Juicy J dropped his single "Wax," in which he raps about "blowin' hash, two, three hits put you on your ass" and how "that wax got me turnt up, that shit just the THC."

For some reason, BHO users have become enamored with buying elaborate, visually stunning pipes that retail for thousands of dollars. For instance, Spider, a $20,000 work by Oregon-based artists Ryan Harris and Darby Holm, looks like a sculpture hanging from a glass web. With the flick of a switch, Spider descends a rope to reveal a sophisticated pipe with a water bowl in the arachnid's abdomen and a mouthpiece on its back end. A three-foot pipe shaped like a machine gun recently sold for $9,000.

Another booming BHO tool is the handheld portable vaporizer, which allows users to toke discreetly in public. "That business is just going to get bigger," Prichard says.

The fact that dabs is illegal in Florida hasn't stopped entrepreneurs from profiting. The Atmos Raw, a handheld oil vaporizer ranked number one among 15 models by High Times this past March 27, is made in Davie. The manufacturer, Atmos Technology, operates from a warehouse about a half-mile from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

During a Tuesday afternoon in late September, Atmos' general manager, Patty Oquedo, was at the front desk helping two customers who were buying a couple of vaporizer pens and dabbers, the stainless-steel, pencil-like utensils used to scoop wax. The walls of the lobby were lined with at least a dozen vaporizer models. The company also makes disposable vaporizers and pens for tobacco companies such as Zig-Zag.

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""They are risking their lives and their property not knowing what the hell they are doing.""

Why not tell them how to do it then?

Do NOT make BHO inside of any building, structure, or vehicle.

Do NOT make BHO in any urban or suburban environment or anywhere people.

Do NOT make BHO while wearing synthetics (can cause static charges which can ignite butane).

Do NOT make BHO while possessing any lighters, cell phones, matches, or other sources of ignition.

Pretty dang simple really. So far every explained explosion has been either 1) inside a building or 2) someone lights a cigarette.

Further:

DO purge, thoroughly and properly.

DO be careful in dosing BHO - a little dab will do you, and the rocketship high described at the start of this article is due to an excessively large dose. Great if that's what you want or need...but in all other cases a tiny dab is sufficient.

I was one of the people in the recent Florida poll. I like to think doctors know what they are doing, but I can't help but wonder, why is this illegal in the first place? Where does government come off with their tax on a weed. Sounds like, if they wanted, they could tax the air we breathe.

I don't care for the idea of impaired people driving on the road with me. Still, that has nothing to do with government regulations. It seems that a person smoking does much less harm than alcohol. It's just that a drunk will try to smoke, while smokers don't care about drinking. When people are smoking, and drinking, the booze is what makes them try crazy stuff. I it might add, that when polled, I did agree to medical use. I have never tried hash oil or BHO, but maybe once I evaluate it, I might think differently.

I love how many people jump on here to voice their ignorance. They based their views off of a movie called refer madness, and try to use it as hard facts. DO THE RESEARCH DO IT FOR REAL. I have and I can shot all you "refer madness crazies" down all day with cold hard facts. Email me the info you have of some one dying from marijuana ill wait...

First the people making this are fucking stupid on the can it says flammable second you have to use refined. Butane..there is also healthier ways to make hash for example using the ice method and if you dont make bho the right way there many toxins that can fuck you up. Instead he should have shined some light on that not to buy that street shit. Francisco Alvarado should have spoke on what medical marijuana can do for the sick and the state and what laws might take place.not talk about all these idiots that dont know what they are doing or making a quick buck on a product that people dont know about and putting in there bodys. There was only one sentence about ligalization of medical marijuana obviously he did not research what he wrote about. What a dick and waste of a read

Hmmmm, how to say this without offending anyone ? If you feel the need to try your hand at making this stuff, eventually legalized or not, don't do it around me or anyone I give a damn about. And that includes marketing it, selling it, using it and anything else you can think of. I want nothing to do with the criminal issues that this will eventually create. This also includes any addictions and financial shortcomings where one thinks they have to break and enter my home or car and rob me for their next fix. I'll be perfectly clear, I consider those that do make anything of this nature that ultimately hurts my position and quality of life as making my life that much more difficult than it has to be. I don't want to pay a penny more for insurance because another is under the influence of this crap and somehow a legislated act deems that I have some legal obligation to overcome their poor judgements and impairments. And bring another special needs aka retard into the world from genetic defects caused by this, I don't want to pay more for healthcare over that. Bad enough the human gene pool is polluted as it is that anyone would knowingly do this to themselves. And don't get on a soapbox preaching about alcohol & tobacco being worse. I don't want alcoholics around me either. I may lead a boring life, but I like it that way, there are enough challenges without handicapping one's self with this stupidity.

@lenny14 if you're driving in S. Florida (probably n. florida too but idk) you are already driving surrounded by impaired people. at any given time there are 5 drivers around you on oxycodone if you're driving in southeast florida.

@James G. Camp The only criminal issues that arise due to drugs are prohibition: ask the 1930's about how that worked out with alcohol. Marijuana is not physically addictive so no addict is going to break into anything over it. Marijuana's price is also hyperinflated, like all prohibited recreational drugs, which is why addicts resort to robbing people in the first place. Heroin can be created for 12 cents a dose that now cost $20. Do you think people would be robbing people at gun point for 12 cents? Let's use a little logic here.

If some one is on prescription pain killers it's okay to pay a penny more for insurance? What makes marijuana, cocaine, heroin or anything else any different? As long as they weren't at the level of inebriation it should have no bearing.

As an aside: I think the one polluting the human gene pool are vapid breeders such as yourself spreading your sub-genius IQ DNA like it was gold. This suffusion of low intelligence DNA is lowering world IQ, so please for the sake of the world stop breeding and stop any of your children if applicable. Have a nice day.

Ur an idiot and got no clue what ur talking about so the little old lady dabbing so she can remember her grand kids names is a criminal really so the Lil old man dabbing because he crushed his spin is a criminal??? Or better yet that vet that dabs cause he lost both legs and has PTSD to help cope is a criminal. Next time b4 u sound like a freakin retard do some research

Marijuana isn't a drug. You are programmed to think that. It is as safe as breathing air. I can get cataracts, glaucoma, Alzheimer's, god knows how many cancers I can no longer get due to the fact I smoke weed. There for I see it as preventative medicine. That caffein you drink every day is more addicting and more dangerous. Do some research cause you just sound like an ignorant person. How is god wrong explane that to me???? Genisis 1:12 I have give you all the seed bearing plants and herbs to use... It cures chrons disease, dementia, multiple sclerosis. Oh whatch out now that dangerous I might not ever get any serous illness in my life... Meaning I might NEVER give big PHARMA a penny. No do u see why it's illegal. You probably take all kinds of pills and because the doctor gave them to you that a ok huh??? That's why every day they have comercials if you've experiences these symptoms call us so we can sue the shit out of some one. More people die every year from chocking on pen caps then marijuana. DO THE RESEARCH!!! NO ONE HAS EVER DIED FROM MARIJUANA. Marijuana has been used by man since 3000b.c. You lord witch ever one you believe in smoked weed because back then every one smoked weed. So get the sand out of you vagina.